From: Jim Toth [nowc2@mindspring.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2001 10:05 AM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: "Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598"
Regarding Genetically Engineered Foods, the proposed regulations
are of little real value to protect my health and our environment.
This is what is needed:
* The FDA must require mandatory pre-market comprehensive
environmental review. Unlike conventional pollutants,
where a given amount of pollutant causes a limited amount
of damage, a small number of mutant genes could have a
population explosion and reproduce forever, causing
unlimited and irreparable damage.
* The FDA must require mandatory pre-market long-term health
testing. GE products could be toxic, cause allergic
responses, have lower nutritional value, and compromise
immune responses in consumers.
* The FDA must require mandatory labeling of GE products.
Without mandatory labeling, neither consumers nor health
professionals will know if an allergic or toxic reaction
was the result of a genetically engineered food. Consumers
would be deprived of the critical knowledge needed to hold
food producers liable should any of these novel products
be hazardous.
* The FDA must end its cozy relationship with the industries
it purports to be regulating. People have been allowed to
work for a biotech company, then work for the FDA writing the
regulatory rules on that company's product, then go back to
working for the company. Ninety-two percent of FDA advisory
committee meetings had at least one conflict of interest.
Sincerely,
Jim Toth
Cleveland, Ohio